Republicans have made a show of their supposed job creation efforts over the past three years, decrying “job killing” regulations and taxes on “job creators.” They have a web site — 4jobs.gov — devoted to their job creation agenda and have even named legislation the JOBS Act. They have also slammed President Obama, saying that…
Court Strikes Blow To Illinois Eavesdropping Law
In a blow to Illinois sweeping eavesdropping law, a federal appeals court on Tuesday blocked its enforcement in cases where someone is recording a police officer at work. It was a victory for activists who had feared that using smartphones or video cameras to record police responding to demonstrations during this months NATO summit in…
Health Care Increasingly Out Of Reach For Millions Of Americans
Having trouble finding a doctor? You’re not alone.Tens of millions of adults under 65 — both those with insurance and those without — saw their access to health care dramatically worsen over the past decade, according to a study released Monday. The findings suggest more privately insured Americans are delaying treatment due to rising out-of-pocket…
High uninsured rates can kill you — even if you have coverage
Across the state, however, there was huge variation in how health outcomes were improving: San Francisco and Los Angeles had decreases between 26 percent and 30 percent, while in Sacramento, the drop was just 13 percent. Daysal wanted to know what was different about the patients in the three cities. He controlled for basic demographic…
CHARTS: Austerity In Europe Hasn’t Worked
Indeed, the French vote, alongside elections in Greece in which voters abandoned pro-austerity parties in droves in favor of extremists, was a stark reminder that voters have no patience with forced economic sacrifice that isn’t paired with efforts to boost growth and create jobs. And here are three charts showing that the austerity policies adopted…
America’s Corporations Made A Record $824 Billion Last Year, As Conservatives Claim Obama Is Anti-Business
A favorite conservative attack on President Obama is that his policies — and even his personality — amount to an assault on American businesses. “President Obama himself is the most anti-business president in my lifetime. With rhetoric not befitting a president he has attacked oil companies, banks, airplane users, Wall Street and anyone who makes…
Paul Ryan Challenged By Town Hall Constituents Over Previous Praise Of Ayn Rand
Last month, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) disavowed his one-time political muse, Ayn Rand, because of her “atheist philosophy.” Some of his constituents, however, aren’t buying it. Ryan praised Rand’s ideas at length during a 2005 gathering in her honor and declared that “the reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I…
The Real Voter Registration Numbers
The Washington Post recently published a story (“Voter registration down among Hispanics, blacks” May 4th, 2012) that inaccurately claimed that the number of African American and Hispanic registered voters has fallen sharply since 2008; it has not. One of the most important successes of the historic 2008 campaign was the Obama-Biden ticket’s ability to expand…
Nuclear Experts Are Calling Fukushima a Ticking Time-Bomb
The spent fuel in the hobbled unit 4 at Fukushima Daiichi not only sits in an elevated pool outside the reactor core’s reinforced containment, in a high-consequence earthquake zone adjacent to the ocean — just as nearly all the spent fuel at the nuclear site is stored — but it’s also open to the elements…
Government Is Getting Smaller in the U.S.
Spending by the federal government, adjusted for inflation, has risen at a slow rate under President Obama. But that increase has been more than offset by a fall in spending by state and local governments, which have been squeezed by weak tax receipts. In the first quarter of this year, the real gross domestic product…
Republicans: Cut Programs For The Poor, Not The Military
As Congress returns from recess this week, House Republicans are set to advance legislation to replace automatic defense spending cuts they agreed to last year with cuts to programs for the poor and working class. The controversial measure is expected to pass the House and die in the Senate, making it largely a political exercise…
Private-Sector Jobs Bounce Back Under Obama
In the first year of President Barack Obama’s term, the country lost about 4.2 million private-sector jobs. But as of last month there are now more private-sector jobs in the United States than there were in January 2009, when President Obama took office. You read that right. Since bottoming out in early 2010, the country…
Jobs Growth Continues in April, but Congress Needs to Help Make Sure It Lasts
The economy continues to move in the right direction. It added 115,000 jobs in April, and data for February and March were revised upward by a total of 53,000 jobs. April marks the 26th straight month of gains in private-sector employment, for a total of 4.2 million private-sector jobs. This month’s growth is not…
U.S. health care spending ‘dwarfs’ that of other countries
The United States spends more on health care than 12 other industrialized countries, a new Commonwealth Fund study finds – but that doesn’t mean this country’s care is any better. The U.S. spent nearly $8,000 per person for health care services in 2009, the study found, confirming that “health care spending in the U.S. dwarfs…
$16 Million Later, Scott Walker is Still Deadlocked in Recall Fight | Mother Jones
Gov. Scott Walker and his conservative allies have spent nearly $17 million to boost his candidacy in Wisconsins looming recall election. What have they got to show for it? Nothing, according to a new Marquette University Law School poll. Despite all the TV ads attacking Democrat Tom Barrett and touting Walkers supposedly job-centric agenda in…
New Report: Health Care Law Makes Community Health Centers Stronger
The President’s health care law gives hard working, middle-class families the security they deserve. The Affordable Care Act forces insurance companies to play by a new set of common sense rules, prohibiting them from dropping your coverage if you get sick, billing you into bankruptcy through annual or lifetime limits, and, soon, discriminating against anyone with…
Yes, Bush’s economy was terrible
Of the more negative responses to today’s column, the one that’s been most common was the one I was least prepared for: The Bush economy, my correspondents say, was actually pretty good! As one reader e-mailed, “A stock market bordering 14,000, gas prices around $2-2.5/gal, a deficit in the low billions, an unemployment rate of…
Right-Wing Claims Obama’s New Campaign Slogan Reveals His Secret Communist And/Or Fascist Allegiances
One word; seven letters; so much nefarious hidden meaning. The Obama campaign’s new slogan, “Forward,” may seem like a typically oblique and anodyne piece of political branding — but thankfully, right-wing bloggers are here to reveal its true meaning, and predictably, it involves socialism and Hitler. The president’s reelection campaign unveiled the slogan yesterday in…
80 Rapes; County Prosecutor’s Concern? “Heavy hand” and “overreach” of Federal Government
Fred Van Valkenburg, Missoula County chief prosecutor, vehemently defended his office and the police officers involved in the investigations. “We adamantly deny that we have done any such thing and we are deeply disturbed with the allegation that we have done so,” he said, according to the Missoulian newspaper. “While we have no choice, given…
Amer. Cancer Society Chief: ‘The System Really Is Not Failing … Failure Is The System’
When I hear the politicians talk about death panels and rationing, we need to be talking about rational use of medicine. Not rationing but rational. And unfortunately that is not happening in the United States. There is this drug called Prilosec. Suppresses acid in the stomach. Great drug. AstraZeneca only had one problem. Eighteen-year patent….